With some of the of the most spectacular Ocean viewing in the world the coast of Oregon also features world class entertainment! Of course summer is especially packed with touring and local talent culminating with Labor Day Weekend with shows in just about every venue. From up and down the central coast we bring three choice venues and bands scheduled for this Labor day Weekend.

The Roadhouse is a great place for live music. Focused towards Blues they bring in national and international groups and help bands from the Oregon get a start. Their commitment to live music is refreshing.

San Dune Pub in Manzanita Featuring the Led Zeppelin tribute band Ramble On

Four musicians who grew up with the music of Led Zeppelin: Steve Adams (Jimmy Page), Chael Emmett (John Paul Jones), Merrill Hale (John Bonham), and Rich Ray (Robert Plant)– based out of Portland.

Sand Dune Pub is another coastal venue with a vibe that goes beyond just trying to make a buck and is a a true supporter of live music. Plus they serve these sweet potato fries, I had never had sweet potatoes, don’t really like sweet potatoes. I LOVE THE FRIES AND DIP.

30 Second video of Tillomook Rock Lighthouse

This is a spectacular sight with storm sized waves. Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park.

WHEN
The four weeks between Mid December and Mid January could see 20,000 whales swimming south along the Oregon and California coastline. Most of the whales make the return trip north over the spring months of March, April and May.

There is so much more to see, storm watching and Christmas shopping on the Oregon Coast.

According to researchers the number of gray whale calves in the Chukchi Sea has hit a modern day record, 57 cow / calf pairs compared to a record 18 in 2011. In fact according to Wayne Perryman, a researcher with the federal Southwestern Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California, there is an estimated 1,000 calves this year and “there should be a lot of them everywhere.”

View from the Whale Cove Inn

This should bode well for the whale watchers this fall. On the Oregon coast whale watching related travel could hit a record.

A dramatic and impressive site Gray whales grow to over 45 feet long and weigh over 35 tons; calves are born weighing about 1,100 pounds. The North Pacific gray whale population is estimated to be between 18,000 and 22,000 animals.

Haystack Rock Cannon Beach

With the whales migration route close-in along the North American coast whale watching is possible from shore or by boat. With its dramatic shore shoreline Whale watching along the Oregon coast an increasingly popular fall and winter travel destination from all over thee world.

The whales migration along the coast of North America is legendary as the animals can be seen swimming south in the fall and north in late winter. The site is as dramatic today as it was hundreds of years ago to Indians and last century to the builders of the coastal highway and bridges. Today the whales attract travelers in close on zodiac raft boats and on cabin cruisers. Some even make direct contact with the whales while in kayaks.

Though mostly migratory gray whales, known as Ecola to the Indians and Devil Fish to hunters in the past the Gray can be seen along the Oregon coast throughout the year, in particular in the Depoe Bay area. In the North coast The views from Ecola State park make it a popular location to view the whales; with Haystack Rock to the south and the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse perched on a desolate rock islet about a mile off the ‘Tillimook Head’.

Further down the coast there are many hamlets and towns that feature harbors and chartered whale watching cruises. The central area with Lincoln City, Depoe Bay and Newport may be the hotspots for coastal ventures. But all along the coast each area features its own unique offerings…

Towns like Garibaldi with the rolling railroad museum where history can be experienced on a train ride powered by one of several locomotive engines including a 1925 steam locomotive featured in this video.
There are also dinner trains offered through out the year. Each train is a three hours excursion starting in Garibaldi and goes north to Wheeler offering views of Tillamook Bay, the Pacific Ocean and Nehalem Bay. The meal is a four course catered meal. For more details go herehttp://www.ocsr.net/dinner.html

America shaped it’s future during the Great Depression by bringing men from all over the country to the rugged jobs of building connections to the resources of the West.

That work included the creation of many of the bridges along Oregon’s Coast, bridges that today invite travelers from all over the world to drive along America’s North Coast and experience some of the most exciting and picturesque ocean shore line in the world. Home to Bald Eagles, Elk, Otters and neighbor to gray whales as they migrate along the coast twice a year.

To explore the stories behind the bridges and the lives of Oregon’s Coast I recommend the book Crossings: McCullough’s Coastal Bridges by Judy Fleagle.

Coos Bay Bridge

You can contact Judy by email at crossingsauthor@hotmail.com

or look for her book in bookstores and tourist information centers all along the coast.

She is also laying out the foundation for her next book on the Oregon Coast here on her weekly blog…